WREXHAM chairman Mark Guterman has stressed that there is no financial crisis at the cash-strapped club after players and staff were only paid half their November wages.

Players were told they were getting only half their monthly cheques just before they set off for their league clash at Brighton on November 29, where they crashed to a 2-0 defeat.

But although Guterman has admitted the club are in the middle of a cashflow problem due to the fact they only had one home game in November, he has insisted that neither players nor staff will be left out of pocket over the Christmas period.

He also claimed in a interview with a local radio station that the club was in a much healthier position than it had been 12 months ago.

He said: 'We were expecting other monies to come in by a certain date but that did not materialise.

'As a result, the players were asked to accept half their wages now and the other half in two weeks' time. They were very understanding of the situation and they have always been supportive of the club.

'They don't have a problem with that and we don't have a problem. We could have gone to the Professional Footballers' Association for a loan to pay the wages in full, but there would have been a 10% interest charge up front, which I felt was a waste of money.'

In a statement, club captain Brian Carey, the PFA's representative at the Racecourse, added: 'We were informed on Thursday, November 27, that we were not to be paid in full, which we accepted. We realise the tight financial situation in football at the present time.'

He later said: 'I'm not worried and I'm not concerned. The club, like any other business, will have cashflow problems from time to time and the players were prepared to accept that.

'There have been one or two problems over the years but we have always been paid in the end and that's what counts. The club has been in a lot worse situations and we've dealt with it before.'

Carey also denied suggestions that the pay issue had affected the team's performance at Brighton.

He said: 'The players are very resilient and they have a great deal of professional pride. Any suggestion they did not do their best would not be tolerated by anyone at the club.'

Since Guterman acquired sole ownership of Wrexham in May last year, he and his fellow directors have worked hard to stabilise the club's financial situation, which over the past three years has virtually drained a previously healthy balance of nearly £700,000.

Despite promotion at the end of last season, regular attendances at the Race-course have shown little improvement and the current cashflow situation has been severely hit by a fixture list that has provided the club with just two home matches between November 1 and December 13.

Wrexham also suffered defeats last month in both the FA Cup and the LDV Vans Trophy, missing out on other potentially lucrative sources of revenue.

But Carrol Clark, chairman of the Wrexham AFC Official Supporters' Association, said: 'From my days in banking I know that many companies go through temporary financial problems and I have no reason to believe this situation is any different.

'Wrexham haven't had many home matches recently and they have also been knocked out of the FA Cup, but I'm confident it's nothing more than a blip.'

The club have also revealed that former Manchester City and Aberdeen striker Leon Mike is currently training at the Race-course on a month's trial as boss Denis Smith attempts to bolster his goal-shy attack ahead of Saturday's home clash with Peterborough.

The Dragons haven't managed to find the net in nearly four hours of football, but Smith is hoping to put that right against The Posh.

He said: 'If you don't score, you don't win - simple as that. What we need at the moment is someone prepared to go in behind defenders - in where it hurts, if you like. That's the only way to get goals and that's why Andy Morrell scored so many for us last season.

'At the moment, we're not getting behind defenders enough. We've got players here capable of doing it, but they don't do it often enough.'

Striker Lee Jones staked his claim for a return to the starting 11 with an impressive performance for the reserves this week.

The 30-year-old, who has not started a league game since the end of October, bagged a brace in the 2-2 draw with Macclesfield under the watchful eye of Smith, who said: 'Lee already scored a few goals before picking up a bit of an injury, which set him back a little, but he's looking very sharp again.'